Fans didn't forsake Frankie Laine

One of those unfortunate signals to me -- and perhaps to you -- is the passing from our stage to a heavenly one of the entertainment icons of our youth. I recently lost one who was special to me.

Maybe it was because his was the very first record I bought for my newly purchased 45 rpm record player. You may recall the compact little things. Mine was an automatic RCA Victor player. As I recall I could stack 14 of the 7-inch round-holed records on it.

At any rate it was enough to get me through my preparation for a day at high school (Mom always though the volume was a little high). The year was late summer of 1952 and my Dad had taken me to see "High Noon" at a theater in downtown Albuquerque. The film was suspenseful and gripping, made more so by the recurring theme, "Do Not Forsake Me."

I got my record player some time later, then I bought "Command Performance," a 45 rpm album comprised of two records with four songs on each. As I look at the cover, it cost me $2.94, a princely (although I was definitely not royalty) sum for those 50-cent allowance days.

Frankie Laine had been summoned to (at that time) the world's most glamorous one-night stand. The young Queen Elizabeth desired to have Frankie perform some of his biggest hits. The eight included: "High Noon," "I Believe," "Jealousy" and "Your Cheatin' Heart," all Top 10 hits.

It wasn't overnight success for Frankie. His early jobs included being a singing waiter and a dance instructor. He and his partner won a dance marathon in 1932.

His first break came when he got a job replacing Perry Como with Freddie Carlone's touring band in 1937. That took him to a house vocalist for a New York radio station and then to Hollywood.

Hoagy Carmichael "discovered" him there, convinced him to change his name from Frank LoVecchio and funded his first recording session. It resulted in "That's My Desire," Frankie's first smash hit. Other hits such as "Rose, Rose I Love You," and "Mule Train" followed.

Then his recording of "High Noon" happened, and although Tex Ritter did the film version, Frankie's ranked higher on the charts. That western feel to his voice resulted in other soundtrack opportunities for "Man Without a Star," "Blowing Wild" and the "Rawhide" TV series. He spoofed himself when he sang the theme to Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles."

He was as big a star as there was in the late 1940s and 1950s. Now he's moved on, I'm glad I can still hear that wonderful voice and dynamic presentation on my collection.

In a totally unrelated item, the first Grammy awarded for the Rap category went to DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince in 1989 for "Parents Just Don't Understand" (probably the truth).

Scratch that old myth of my Viking ancestors wearing those goofy hats with horns on the head. The myth can be tracked back to Swedish artist Gustave Malmstrom in the 1820s. Gus illustrated Esaias Tegner's epic poem "Frithiof's Saga." He apparently thought the horned hats looked tough.

I can claim to be like Michael Davis. He said, "I started out with nothing. I still have most of it."

If you're a student looking for help with college expenses, consider changing your last name to Zolp. Loyola University has a scholarship available to anyone with the name Zolp.

"Would you like to buy the trout I caught," said Tom selfishly.

Jim Willard, a Loveland resident since 1967, retired from Hewlett-Packard after 33 years to focus on less trivial things. He calls Twoey, his bichon frisé-Maltese dog, vice president of research for his column.